Stick Left is classic Red Rock at its best. Situated  on beautiful chocolate varnished rock, this route has everything-perfect hands to start, cups leading to fists to a memorable lieback crux, to sustained and interesting climbing above. Pro is excellent the whole way, the only possible down side to this route is the rope eating pull from the bolted anchor. Worth the hike and then some.

Stick Left

Winter Wanderland

Stick and move

Good Day Sunshine

Datura P2 Left Chimney

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

unknown in gully up & right of Stick climbs

happy lollipop tower

Shadow Play

Stick Gully

Prelude

unknown left start to Datura

Stickball

Promote The Segregation

Abstinence

Sandstone Scofflaws

Casper the Friendly Offwidth

Stick Right

The Stick-Slip Phenomenon

Elephant Penis

unknown right of hlt

unknown

Box of Rain

Plato's Grotto

Stick Gully is an exercise in oak tree beating, punctuated with occasional pitches of rock climbing, some of which is pretty good. And an absolutely crazy double helix pitch through the final chockstone/headwall. 

  P1: From the end of the scrambling, make your way to the top of the chockstones. Thrash a short ways to move the belay to the back of the gully.   P2: up the far back of the gully to delightful cracks to a level spot to more delightful crack climbing to oak trees. Thrash up in oak trees. A short distance before the next chock stone barrier, belay at a gash on the right.   P3: up the gash; maybe 40 feet; don't kid yourself; this is not the best pitch you've ever climbed.   P4: up the obvious crack in the left wall; maybe 25 feet; traverse right to belay on top of chock stones.   P5: grovel up the gash to a forest   p6: traverse climbers left on the ledge system and down/across slabs to return to the main gully below the final chock stones of doom.   P7: an interesting step-across leads to the right hole; follow this up, right, and back to daylight; continue the spiral (climber's right no longer makes sense when you are coming from inside the cliff...) through a second chockstone hole, a move or two, and the gentle upper reaches of Stick Gully, roughly at the height where the down climb from Fear and Loathing traverses into Gemstone Gully.

low angle climbing on featured, black flakes. good fun; lots of sun. Many flakes are fragile--not recommended for the budding 5.5 leader.

This isn't Really an independent route so much as a variation to Stick left. 

  Climb the crack that zigzags, at first, then straights out. This leads to a solid flake/block in the crack. Crank past the block and continue following the crack until it joins stick left at the top of its crux (lip of the roof). Follow Stick left to its bolted anchor. Note: not easy to TR from the Stick left anchor due to a possible swing, use directionals if you want to TR it.

low angle climbing on featured, black flakes. good fun; lots of sun.

A must-do roof with nice, easier climbing above and below. The rock in the roof itself is impeccable; elsewhere, some flaky and sandy rock will clean up nicely with traffic.

 4 x 30-meter bolted rappels to the packs.

100 feet of excellent crack climbing; too bad it's not next to Straight Shooter

P1 200' Intricate climbing up the crack systems. start in the alcove below the middle crack; up this ~30 feet. below a 4 inch roof on the left, traverse left into the next crack system [alternatively,  continue up the crack past a wide section, a tree, and another tree to the ledge system at 200 feet]. up the crack to an alcove; up and left to another alcove if continuing up; if rappelling, up and right to rappel anchor.   P2 100' From the belay nook to the top of the block on the left; step awkwardly across into the obvious crack. When the crack ends, traverse right to the next crack/chimney system; for the left, wide option, belay here; for the right hand crack option, continue right and up to a small stance beneath a tight hand crack.    P3 100' Up the wide crack on the left or up the hand crack on the right; both pitches end on a ledge with a tree.   P4 160' Up the chimney & crack on the left. #5 & #6 camalots, big bros, & valley giants. other gear options are widely spaced. Belay below the final overhang.   P5 40' Up into the chimney, squirm horizontal, move out to the lip, let your feet cut loose, and squeeze upward to a stance. In places it was possible to turn my helmeted head. The valley giants were not necessary on this pitch; make a present of them to your second...   P6 70' continue up the wide crack and chimney above 

  someone has sawn oak trees at the base of the climb pre-fire. there are bolts on top of pitch 1, getting past the trees on the alternative first pitch clearly had not been done by humans in decades... just above P1, there are old, rusted nuts and rappel tat. above this, there was no sign of previous climbing.

A dusty pitch that might not be popular even if it were easy to get to and saw enough traffic to clean it up. Some might think it a reasonable warm-up & approach to Shadow Play. 

  Somehow struggle up to a chimney alcove at the base of a handcrack. Up the handcrack, and then up the left angling weakness/crack system to the Shadow Play ledge system.

A pleasant start to Datura that avoids its P1 short chimney struggle and P2 bushwhack. Up the slab to the crack, up. When the bushes on top of the buttress appear, diagonal down to the huge pine tree at the start of the business on Datura.

A fun and worthwhile toprope-after all, you humped the gear all the way up here, why not get some mileage? The moves felt sustained and the rock wasn't worth betting your life on, but the route has good movement and is a nice contrast to the two on the left. The reason for the name is a cool hold that is shaped like a glued-on softball.

If you just say “no” you’ll never know what you’re missing out on… A delightful indulgence in wide.

An alternate start to The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Higher quality rock would make this a fun pitch, but until a bunch of folks climb this while it’s wet (please, be our guest to do so…), this piece of stone is best to avoided.

 Climb cracks and corners past ledges. Eventually trend right to join The Itsy Bitsy Spider below its roof pitch. From here, either continue on The Itsy Bitsy Spider, or downlead ~50’ climber’s right (5.7) to a bolted anchor on a ledge just past a tree.

much quality stemming, chimneying, mayhem, etc. some short, sandy bits.

The easier version of Stick Left, this route climbs a thinner crack past a nice layback crux (huff and puff) to a funky chimney and a fun finish. Like its neighbor, this is a neglected classic with a variety of moves on it and solid gear. May feel tough for a Red Rock 5.9 sport climber, but grade is on the money. Bolted anchor.

Quality, steep #3 camalot crack climbing with a pair of bonus, wide sections.   

  Face climb around the bush that guards the start; chimney/stem to the #6 sized crack; struggle to the hand jams; jam; struggle... 

  As you pull the final move out of the crack, look left and marvel at the piton placed under the foot-stool sized block on the ledge you're belly flopping onto...

The first pitch generally consists of excellent moderate hand to fist crack climbing with plenty of face holds thrown in. I'd call it 5.8ish and it's 35 meters on the money. This pitch ends at a nice ledge. 

  The second pitch is slightly harder, though still 5.8, perhaps 5.9. You need a #6 BD to protect the first 15 feet or so off the anchor. The crack narrows and eases in difficultly.

a respectable wide crack; don't let the 15 feet of sandy start deter you. 200 feet of camelot 4, 5, 6, & 7 climbing in good rock. (I know, no #7 camalot; but if there were, you'd use it...)

3 short, fun, crack pitches to nowhere 

  P1: finger/hand crack to intersection with the chasm   P2: continue up the chasm/corner; #4 camalot assortment handy; parts of the chasm are wider than a #6 camalot, so expect to be on your own for a bit; belay at left/right option   P3: up left in the black corner; up wide crack & face; belay on ledge system underneath the crazy overhanging corner 

  Downclimb to trees and rappel back to the base of the climb. 

  Someone has cut the oak trees on the starting belay ledge before the fire. We found a sad rap anchor there too. Not sure whether these traces are from folks rappeling the major gully system uphill of the climb or from folks climbing below the crazy corner. 

  The crazy corner looks to be a piece of work. The rock is not special and much of the gear will be the tiniest of cams; see photo.

Up low-angle slabs to the black, jumbled system of corners; up these to a short OW section; surmount a chockstone and hike back 40 feet to belay at the base of a wide crack system that goes up and then arches right. Up the crack and out right to the big ledge. Rappel from bushes or 3rd/4th class left to hiking.

Rather civilized as wide cracks go. Varied techniques may be employed. The consternating bolt at the top of the formation is not ours; with long slings/the rest of the rope, a trad anchor can be had.

Less trafficked than almost any area in Pine Creek, the Stick Gully routes avoid the "trade route" feel and lines of the nearby Brass Wall and offers solitude and quality routes off the beaten path.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Stick Gully